Improvement in pocket-books



E. A. H EM P HILL.

Pocket-Books.

Patented Feb. 17. 1814.

' transverse section of the book.

UNITED STArEs PATENT OFFICE.

EDIYARI) A. HFMPHILL, OF BALLSTOX SPA, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN POCKET-BOOKS.

Specification forming part ofLetters Patent No. 147,639, dated February 17, 1874; application filed August 27, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD A. HEMPHILL, of Ballston Spa, in the county of Saratoga and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pocket-Books; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others 1 skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification.

This invent-ion relates to that class of memorandunrbooks, diaries, wallets, and other books intended to be carried in. a pocket, which are provided with a closing-flap and means for securing the same in its closed position. My improvement consists in providing the left hand cover, or the one over which the closing flap is folded in shutting the book, with an additional flap, so connected therewith by a flat spring that it will press forcibly against the cover, and firmly clamp the elosingflap thereto on inserting or tucking the same under it.

In the annexed drawings, Figure l is a perspective of a memorandum-book containing my improvement, the outer covering of the additional or clamping flap being imagined as transparent to show its spring. Fig. 2 is a Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the spring detached.

The same letters of reference are used in all the figures in the designation of identical parts.

The memorandnnrbook selected to illustrate my invention has the usual collection of sheets of paper, A, bound together and inclosed within the covers B and (1, the jormer being the left-hand and the latter-the right-hand cover. A pocket, D, is a's ilsual, attached to the interior side of the righthand cover, and it is also provided with a pencil holder or receptable, ll, where the closing-flap F joins with it. The closing-flap is made pliant, but sufficiently stifi to enable it to retain its proper shape under ordinary handling. In shutting the book the closing-flap, in folding over the left-hand cover B, is slipped or tucked under the narrow flap G, which is permanently attached, near the back of the book, to the cover B, and extends some distance across the same. By preference it is made of even length with the cover, as shown. Concealed in this flap G is a spring, H, the leaves hand h of which are inserted in pockets formed in the cover B. The leaves 7L and h in their normal state are made to fold close upon the arms h and its, so thatthe tendency of the spring, when applied as above described, will be to press the flap G closely against the cover B. Thus the flap G will firmly clamp the closing-flap, when tucked under it, to the cover, and hold it properly closed. The spring may be of difl'ercnt form, and also applied somewhat difl'crently, but in all cases its tendency must be to press the additional flap against its cover.

A book thus constructed contains all the desirable features of one in which the spring is inserted in the closing-flap, and possesses some decided advantages over such a one. Among the latter may be classed the facts that i the closing-flap, being of the ordinary pliable kind, does not interfere with writing 011 the leaves of the book when opened; that it leaves the pocket more available, that it may be used as a bookmark or to cover the pocket while the book is being used without making the leaves uneven and difficult to write upon.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In combination with the ordinary pliant closing-flap F of a book, the clamping-flap G, actuated by a spring, H, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 23d day of August, 1873.

EDIVARD A. HEMPHILL.

Witnesses:

ALVAH G. DAKE, M. J. ESMOND. 

